Oral cavity hygiene should be considered of great importance in preventing oral mucositis. Meticulous pretreatment assessment with periodontal, dental and radiographic evaluation and, when necessary, restorative dental procedures performed at least three weeks before the beginning of mucosa-toxic therapy, have all been shown to reduce the incidence and duration of mucositis.
The prophylaxis and treatment of oral mucositis during cancer therapies remains an unsolved problem. Accurate pre-treatment assessment of oral cavity hygiene, and mechanical cleaning using traditional mouthwashes seem to be effective in preventing the onset of oral mucositis. Some therapeutic agents, such as benzydamine, imidazole antibiotics, tryazolic antimycotic and povidone iodine, have shown some clinical evidence of their efficacy in reducing oral mucositis.
Oral mucositis is one of the main complications in non-surgical cancer treatments. It represents the major dose-limiting toxicity for some chemotherapeutic agents, for radiotherapy of the head and neck region and for some radio-chemotherapy combined treatments. Many reviews and clinical studies have been published in order to define the best clinical protocol for prophylaxis or treatment of mucositis, but a consensus has not yet been obtained.
The prophylactic or therapeutic use of the analyzed agents, the number of enrolled patients and the study design (randomized or not) were also specified for most studies. Accurate pre-treatment assessment of oral cavity hygiene, frequent review of symptoms during treatment, use of traditional mouthwashes to obtain mechanical cleaning of the oral cavity and administration of some agents like benzydamine, imidazole antibiotics, tryazolic antimycotics, povidone iodine, keratinocyte growth factor and vitamin E seem to reduce the intensity of mucositis. Physical approaches like cryotherapy, low energy Helium-Neon laser or the use of modern radiotherapy techniques with the exclusion of the oral cavity from radiation fields have been shown to be efficacious in preventing mucositis onset. Nevertheless, a consensus protocol of prophylaxis and treatment of oral mucositis has not yet been obtained.
Managing acute pathology of often relies on the addressing underlying pathology and symptoms of the disease. There is currently a need in the art for new compositions to treatment of mucositis.